By Laureen
A. Fregeau and Robert D. Leierlfregeau{at}usouthal.edu and
rdl0002{at}auburn.eduUniversity of South Alabama
(Mobile, Alabama), Auburn University
(Auburn, Alabama,
USA)

Introduction

One result of
the Lau vs. Nichols 1974 Supreme Court Decision is that
students who
do not speak English as their first language must be
provided
instructional and assessment modifications so they have
the
opportunity to be academically successful (Ovando, Collier,
&
Combs, 2006). NCLB (No Child Left Behind) requires that ELLs
receive
the same high quality content that mainstream students learn
(Gottlieb,
2006). Accomplishing these goals is a challenge for
teachers who are
typically not prepared in how to accommodate English
Language Learners
(ELLs) in assessment or instruction.

Many
(ELLs) are now mainstreamed into regular classrooms.
Increasingly
mainstream teachers are faced with teaching students who
speak English
as their second language along with their native
English speaking
students. According to NCLB, the teacher is
responsible for teaching
grade level content to ELLs and for
assessing ELLs on content areas.
Busy mainstream classroom teachers
are often overburdened with many
responsibilities that leave them
little time to prepare special
accommodations for ELLs. Despite this,
mainstream teachers are
responsible for preparing ELLs to take
standardized and teacher-made
tests and assessments.

Taking
a test can be a very frustrating experience for an English
Language
Learner. Many ELL students may know the content but are unable
to do
well on formal examinations designed for native English
speakers.
This article will provide practical suggestions on how busy
mainstream
and ESL teachers can accommodate ELLs in assessments in
ESL and
mainstream classrooms. Simple strategies will be described
for
modifying existing tests for ELLs, preparing Ells to take tests
and
incorporating other forms of assessments to determine student
progress.
*See note.

Easy Accommodations
for Assessing ELLs

ELL students benefit most from having
assessment accommodations in
English rather than assessment
translations in their language.
Standardized tests and high school
graduation exams are usually given
in English. Unless your state
makes tests available in the ELL's second
language, it is important
for ELLs to be practiced and prepared to take
these tests in
English.

ESL and mainstream teachers can have a
difficult time evaluating and
assessing the progress of ELL students
in their classrooms. Language
can be an assessment obstacle, yet
there are some simple accommodations
busy teachers can employ.

Some general accommodations that fit into both instruction
and
assessment are:

allow students who speak the ELL's
first language to translate
especially in project and lab
assessments

allow the use of electronic word-to-word
translators and picture
dictionaries

make use of
comprehension supports such as study buddies and
cooperative
groups

Simple Strategies: Prepare Students to Take
Tests

Relax, there is no need to create a special test for your
ELLs. A
number of adjustments can be made to already-existing
assessments,
including tests that will help ELLs perform better.

Go through the test before hand and highlight
important key terms
and phrases. Literally, use a highlighter,
different font, or different
colored font to indicate important terms
and phrases. This will draw
the ELL's attention to those terms or
phrases first. Point out to the
ELL that they should translate the
highlighted terms first as those
will give them the key concepts of
the test/assessment item.

Read the test directions aloud
to the student as they follow
along to assure understanding.
Literally, have the students follow with
their fingers! This way you
are ensured they know how to decode the
words. Be alert however,
since decoding does not necessarily indicate
comprehension of
meaning. Have the student demonstrate what they will
be doing or
check the student to see they actually understood the
meaning of the
directions.

Clarify important key words or
“confusing” directions. ELLs,
especially those who are
low-level in reading English, need step by
step directions. If
directions have multiple steps, give them the
directions one step at
a time, allowing them to accomplish the first
step before telling
them the second. Highlighting or pointing out key
words in written
directions saves time since the ELL may not need to
look up every
word. Curtin (2005) found that a step by step approach
was
appropriate for ELLs.

Share your class notes or
lesson plans with the students,
allowing them to do a functional
translation. It will save you
instructional time if ELLs have had
time outside of class to look up
the vocabulary they do not
understand. With this strategy they come
into class already knowing
the basic content.

Provide students alternate definitions
of commonly used terms
that may be confusing. For example use:
“gasoline” instead of
“gas,”
“test” instead of “assessment,”
“tissue” instead of
“Kleenex,”
“rotate” instead of “turn,” and “way to
think” or
“perspective” instead of
“view.”

Explain test taking vocabulary. ELLs
may not know the test-taking
meaning of terms such as: explain, name,
why?, how?, role of, discuss,
think about, compare and contrast,
define, describe, briefly, or
except. Give them examples from other
students from previous tests or
from last year's tests.

Simple Strategies: Accommodate Students Taking
Tests

Mainstream classroom teachers sometimes do not have much
time to make
special accommodations for ELLs on tests. Here are some
strategies that
require little teacher time:

Give the ELL
students more time to complete the test. This is the
easiest of all
accommodations.

Allow ELL students to use electronic
word-to-word translators during
tests.

Allow students to use picture dictionaries
for a
vocabulary
check. Picture dictionaries have pictures
illustrating nouns and
verbs. The ELL can look for the picture that
corresponds to the thing
or action they need a word for and then look
at the corresponding
numbered terms at the bottom of the page. There
are bilingual picture
dictionaries, content area picture
dictionaries, and picture
dictionaries for elementary school
students. These are a great tool for
both the ELL and the
teacher.

Have the ELL students answer fewer test
questions. Depending on
the level of proficiency of the ELL, have
them answer two thirds, one
half, or one third of the
questions.

Read the questions aloud to the student if they
need
clarification.
This is the same concept as reading the
directions aloud with the
student following along and then doing a
sample to demonstrate that
they understand the meaning.

Check periodically as the student takes the test to see if
he/she
is
taking the test correctly. ELLs often come from cultures
where the
teacher is viewed as the authority in knowledge and
pedagogy. To
question a teacher is to indicate that a teacher's
directions are
unclear and that the teacher is not doing a
good job of
teaching. Thus, students are expected to not ask
questions and to say
they understand directions even when they do
not. Check frequently to
see if the ELL did indeed understand the
test procedure, vocabulary,
and directions.

Provide
“cognates” for important key terms when applicable.
When
the
ELL's first language uses the Roman alphabet, it is often
possible to
increase their comprehension of written material,
including
assessments, by using cognates. Cognates are words that
“look” more or
less the same in the ELL's first language
and English and have the same
meaning. Examples of cognates for
Spanish are: for “talk” use
“conversation”
(Sp: conversacion),for “test” use “exam”
(Sp:
examen), for “above average” use
“superior” (Sp: superior), for
“purpose” use
“objective” (Sp: objectivo), for “happen” use
“occur”
(Sp: ocurrir), for “directions” use
“instructions” (Sp: instrucciones)

Simple
Strategies: Accommodate Using Existing Tests

Teacher-made
tests and assessments can be quickly adjusted to
accommodate ELLs.
Accommodations can be selected according the English
level of the
ELL. Here are examples for quick adjustments for multiple
choice,
matching, short answer, discussion/essay, fill in the blank,
and
true/false tests:

Multiple choice:
eliminate one or more of the
choices

Discussion and
essay:
have ELLs label terms, draw and label diagrams and
pictures

Matching: reduce the
number of matches required, give
an equal number of possibilities in
each column, and eliminate
“trick” language matches

Short-answer: accept
one-word
answers and phrases in place of complete sentences

True/False: eliminate or
clarify
“tricky” language, reduce the number of questions

Fill in the
blank:
provide two or three options (make the answer multiple
choice)

Simple Strategies: Accommodate in
Grading Assessments

Accommodations in grading can be time-saving
for teachers and
stress-reducing for ELLs. There are a number of
grading strategies the
mainstream teacher can employ in accommodation
including:

Grade only those items completed by the
ELL

Grade only half the number of items that would be
completed by
the mainstream students

Accept a picture or a
description rather than a specific word as
an answer for fill-in the
blank

Count and grade the process rather than only the
product
(especially in math, science, and language arts projects)

Grade homework and include it as part of the final
assessment
grade.

Grade labs and include them in
determining an assessment
(science, foreign languages)

Simple Strategies: Incorporate Other Forms of
Assessment

Alternative assessments offer the mainstream and ESL
teacher a better
insight into the ELL's comprehension and language
skill development
than testing alone. Two such accommodations
are:

Give vocabulary tests on the course content
in place of textbook
generated tests

Additional Suggestions for
Alternative
Assessments
Teachers who are able to invest
additional time in assessment of ELLs
might try some of the
following:

Incorporate dialogue journals, especially in
English language arts and
social studies and for the incorporation of
reading and writing
language objectives. Dialogue journals are a
low-stress, high-interest
tool for assessment. Long-term progress is
easily assessed since
dialogue journals are a permanent and ongoing
record of language skills.

Incorporate project assessments,
especially in science, math, and
social studies, although project
assessment and be adapted to all
subject areas. Project assessments
can easily incorporate the four
language domains of reading, writing,
listening and speaking.

Incorporate oral presentations and
demonstrations that offer an
alternative for students who are at a
higher level in the speaking
domain but at a lower level in reading
and writing domains.

Incorporate portfolio assessments that
will be a source of data for a
continuous evaluation of progress
(Gonzalez, Yawkey and Minaya-Rowe,
2005).

Incorporate
Authentic Assessments (real world challenges) that relate
to the life
of the students such as letter or journal writing,
completing or
demonstrating a task from the world outside the classroom
(such as an
art artifact or report based on researching a topic), or
reading or
writing an online friendship page (Haley, Marjorie, and
Austin,
Theresa, 2004; Diaz-Rico, 2008; O'Malley and
Pierce,
2004).

Note

School systems need mainstream
classroom and ESL teachers to indicate
on progress reports that their
ELL students are receiving appropriately
accommodated instruction and
assessment. Reporting ESL accommodations
can be critical to receiving
federal funding tied to NCLB. Quality
education for ELLs has become a
priority for the US Department of
Education – especially for
the Office of English Language Acquisition
(OELA,
2007).

Teachers are now required to include in lessons and
assessments not
only the traditional content objectives but also
language objectives if
they have ELLs in their classroom. These
objectives need to be for four
domains: reading, writing, listening
and speaking. The ESL teacher,
collaborating with the mainstream
teacher can help the mainstream
classroom teacher to insert language
objectives into their lessons and
assessments.

Mainstream
teachers must know the ELL's proficiency level in order
to
accommodate ELLs in instruction and assessment. ELLs are usually
tested
by an ESL teacher using a state or district selected
placement
assessment. Mainstream teachers should ask for a copy of
the test
results, specifically the ELL's levels in the four language
domains of
reading, writing, speaking, and listening. These levels
will help the
teacher know what accommodations to make for
instruction and
assessments. Ask the ESL teacher if your state or
district has a rubric
guide that shows what to expect for each level
and language
domain.